I decided to write a lifehacker sytle post on how I use Outlook to manage my volumes of info. For some of you this may be old hat, but lately I have noticed the advantages to these changes really coming through.
First, go ahead and download Lookout. It’s a free email search utility that is quicker and higher quality than Outlook’s search. Obviously I try to keep emails in the correct folder but if you misplace something or look for info in your Sent Items, this will save your butt.
Second, using this lifehacker tip on how to highlight messages sent only to me allows me to see if this is an email I must read or (which is more likely) I am being cc’d for the hell of it. Not saying to ignore all those but highlighting messages just to me gives me a heads up that if I don’t respond, no one else will.
Finally, I have become a big fan of marking emails for follow-up. I constantly get feature requests, bug reports, etc that I cannot get to right away. Marking emails this way auto-generates a to-do list for me. You can also save the email as a task but usually just marking it is enough for me. Usually red or blue determine priority and other colors determine project. It’s not a great classification but it’s evolving and works for me.
Feel free to leave in the comments any tools, hacks, etc you use to help organize your personal info.